Amnesty International Media release
For immediate Release
27 March 2012

Death penalty 2011: Alarming levels of executions in the few countries that kill

Countries that carried out executions in 2011 did so at an alarming rate but those employing capital punishment have decreased by more than a third compared to a decade ago, Amnesty International found in its annual review of death sentences and executions.

Only 10 percent of countries in the world, 20 out of 198, carried out executions last year.

People were executed or sentenced to death for a range of offences including adultery and sodomy in Iran, blasphemy in Pakistan, sorcery in Saudi Arabia, the trafficking of human bones in the Republic of Congo, and drug offences in more than 10 countries.

Methods of execution in 2011 included beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting.

Some 18,750 people remained under sentence of death at the end of 2011 and at least 676 people were executed worldwide.

But these figures do not include the thousands of executions that Amnesty International believes were carried out in China, where the numbers are suppressed.

Nor do they account for the probable extent of Iran’s use of the death penalty – Amnesty International has had credible reports of substantial numbers of executions not officially acknowledged.

With the exception of five new death sentences in Papua New Guinea, the Pacific region remained a death penalty-free area in 2011.

“The vast majority of countries have moved away from using the death penalty,” said Rebecca Emery, Deputy Director at Amnesty International.

“Our message to the leaders of the isolated minority of countries that continue to execute is clear: you are out of step with the rest of the world on this issue and it is time you took steps to end this most cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. “

No executions were recorded in Japan – for the first time in 19 years..

Yet Japan did impose the death penalty in 10 new cases last year and 130 people are known to have been on death row, including those with mental disabilities.

The newly-appointed Justice Minister, Toshio Ogawa, has publicly stated that he plans to begin using the death penalty.

One man at risk of being executed is Hakamada Iwao. Hakamada celebrated his 76th birthday on 10 March earlier this month and has been in detention for over 45 years and under sentence of death for over 43 years.

Hakamada was found guilty of the murder of the managing director of the factory where he worked, and the man's wife and two children and sentenced to death in September, 1968.

During the trial he testified that police had beaten and threatened him to force him to sign a “confession” after being interrogated by police for 20 days, without a lawyer present.
“The Japanese Justice Ministry must introduce a moratorium on executions, with a view to abolition, encouraging national debate on the death penalty, they must also ensure that no block are put in place regarding his appeals for a retrial,” said Rebecca Emery.

Further Information:

Thousands of people were executed in China in 2011, more than the rest of the world put together. Figures on the death penalty are a state secret. Amnesty International has stopped publishing figures it collects from public sources in China as these are likely to grossly underestimate the true number.

The organisation renewed its challenge to the Chinese authorities to publish data on those executed and sentenced to death, in order to confirm their claims that various changes in law and practice have led to a significant reduction in the use of the death penalty in the country over the last four years.

In the majority of countries where people were sentenced to death or executed, the trials did not meet international fair trial standards. In some, this involved the extraction of ‘confessions’ through torture or other duress including in China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia.

Foreign nationals were disproportionately affected by the use of the death penalty, particularly in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.

But even in those countries that continue to execute on a high level some progress was made in 2011.

In China, the government eliminated the death penalty for 13 mainly ‘white collar’ crimes, and measures were also put forward to the National People’s Congress to reduce the number of cases of torture in detention, strengthen the role of defence lawyers and ensure suspects in capital cases are represented by a lawyer.

In the USA, the number of executions and new death sentences dropped dramatically from a decade ago Illinois became the 16th state to abolish the death penalty. A moratorium was announced in the state of Oregon. And victims of violent crimes spoke out against the death penalty

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender or the method used by the state to carry out the execution. The death penalty violates the right to life and is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.

Regional summaries

The Americas
The US was once again the only executioner in the Americas. A total of 43 executions were recorded in 13 of the 34 states that retain the death penalty, a drop by a third since 2001, and 78 new death sentences were recorded in 2011, a decrease by half since 2001.

The Caribbean
An execution-free area, with the number of countries imposing new death sentences appearing to be in decline. Only three countries are known to have handed down a total of six death sentences: Guyana, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago.

Asia-Pacific
Positive signs questioning the legitimacy of capital punishment were evident throughout the region in 2011. Not counting the thousands of executions that were believed to have taken place in China, at least 51 executions were reported to have been carried out in seven countries in the Asia-Pacific region. At least 833 new death sentences were known to have been imposed in 18 countries in the region. The Pacific sub-region was death penalty-free with the exception of five death sentences handed down in Papua New Guinea. No executions were recorded in Singapore and, for the first time in 19 years, Japan. The authorities in both countries have previously shown strong support for capital punishment.

Sub-Saharan Africa
Significant progress in 2011 - Benin adopted legislation to ratify the key UN treaty aimed at abolishing the death penalty. Sierra Leone declared, and Nigeria confirmed, official moratoriums on executions. And the Constitutional Review Commission in Ghana recommended the abolition of the death penalty. There were at least 22 executions in three countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan. Only 14 of the 49 countries in the region are classified as retaining the death penalty.

Middle East and North Africa
At least 558 executions could be confirmed in eight countries. At least 750 death sentences imposed in 2011 could be confirmed in 15 countries. The continuing violence in countries such as Libya, Syria and Yemen made it particularly difficult to gather adequate information on the use of the death penalty in the region in 2011. No information was available about judicial executions in Libya, and no death sentences are known to have been imposed. Extrajudicial executions, torture and arbitrary detention were often resorted to instead.

Four countries – Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen – accounted for 99 per cent of all recorded executions in the Middle East and North Africa.

The authorities of Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco/Western Sahara and Qatar imposed death sentences but continued to refrain from carrying out executions.

Europe and Central Asia
Belarus was the only country in Europe and the former Soviet Union, and apart from the USA the only one in the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), to have carried out executions in 2011, executing two men.

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Notes

For further information, for a copy of the full report, Death Sentences & Executions in 2011 and to request an interview please contact the Media & Communications Team on 09 303 4526.

Please also find attached a document outlining the facts and figures in brief here:
http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1203/Execution_Statistics.pdf.

ENDS